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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Philip Oltermann in Bad Tabarz

A new confidence: the east German economy finally gets a boom

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, speaking at the opening day of the Tesla 'gigafactory' in Gruenheide near Berlin in March
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, speaking at the opening day of the Tesla 'gigafactory' in Gruenheide near Berlin in March. Photograph: Christian Marquardt/EPA

In over 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, eastern Germans have been told several reasons why they lag behind the west: an uncompetitive industry, a lack of jobs, a shortage of young workers.

But Germany’s new government believes the formerly socialist “workers’ and peasants’ state” is missing something else: trade unions.

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